Wallace finds road to redemption

Steve Wilson

Jed Wallace revealed he saved himself from going into hiding after his Pompey redemption.

The Blues midfielder blasted a dreadful penalty way over the crossbar in the 73rd minute but then showed immense character to score a fine individual winner in stoppage time to claim the deserved victory for his side.

While lesser players would have let the spot-kick miss affect them, Wallace showed he is made of sterner stuff as he made amends for his error.

And it paid off handsomely as he tucked home a classy winner.

Wallace said: ‘I can walk around in Portsmouth again.

‘I thought I would have to walk around with a bin bag on my head this week.

‘It’s probably the worst I have ever felt in football.

‘People who know my character will know how devastated I would have been to miss the penalty.

‘But then it’s the best – that’s the beauty of this game.

‘Someone tweeted me saying how I messed with their emotions. Imagine how I felt.

‘But I was really happy to make amends for trying to score a conversion, rather than trying to score a penalty!’

Although there was a lengthy delay for Wallace to endure after Matt Tubbs was felled in the box, he insisted that had played no part in the process.

He said: ‘I knew on Monday where I was going with the penalty.

‘I practised all week and I just overhit it really.

‘Better players than me have missed a penalty but I almost hit it too hard or tried to be too precise.

‘But I will be back on the training pitch practising for the next one.

‘You have to deal with pressure.

‘I’ve taken about five million in training this season and that’s the worst I’ve ever taken.

‘I will try to forget about it and will be ready for the next one.’

The 20-year-old was also thankful for the support of the Fratton faithful, who stuck with him as he recovered from his setback.

He said: ‘I’m desperate for this club to do well and for myself to do well so obviously thanks to everyone who stuck by me.

‘For the goal, Tubbsy (Matt Tubbs) rolled it into me, but it was similar to the York finish last season when I jinked him and passed it into the corner.

‘I just went crazy and I nearly jumped in the Fratton end because I had that much adrenalin.

‘It was the best feeling ever. I can’t quite describe it but it’s unbelievable.’

Wallace also paid tribute to team-mate, Dan Butler, who made a crucial late tackle to ensure Pompey held on to their lead.

And Wallace believes there is some real momentum behind the team now with a decent points return from their past four unbeaten fixtures.

He said: ‘We got the three points, that is eight from 12 now.

‘I’m delighted for the manager.

‘He’s a good friend of mine so it’s happy days now.

‘Butts (Butler) has made an unbelievable tackle at the end and put his body on the line.

‘We hit the crossbar twice, a lot of crosses into the box didn’t really fall to us but it was 1-0 and a clean sheet.